Cultural interaction and Fueguian Islands archaeology: discussing Middle and Late Holocene (50º-55º South Latitude, Chile)

Summary

The Fueguian archipelago, dominated by three mayor islands, namely Tierra del Fuego, Dawson and Navarino, is located namely at southernmost end of South America and was peopled by hunter-gatherer societies from c. 10.500 BP to the 20th century. Sea coastline areas have evidence of specialized marine adaptation since c. 7.000 BP, including navigation. Ethnohistoric and ethnographic records account for an overlapping network area of three groups: Selk'nam land hunters and Alacalufe or Kawésqar from central-western Patagonia and Yámana or Yaghan, south of the Beagle channel, the latter two groups being defined as specialized maritime nomads. The use of the subsistence dichotomy between terrestrial/marine and pedestrian/canoe has limited research hypothesis and the comprehension of the archaeological record. We present a broad comparison of cultural interaction data from the Middle and Late Holocene archaeological record is developed, focusing on lithic/bone technological traits (e.g. Levallois core reduction method) and raw material distribution (e.g. obsidian and Miraflores rocks).

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16985